


I loved her first

by katiebuttercup



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fem!malcolm, Gen, Rule 63, alternative universe, genderbent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 04:21:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katiebuttercup/pseuds/katiebuttercup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stuart Reed takes a look around enterprise in an attempt to understand his daughters choices</p>
            </blockquote>





	I loved her first

**Author's Note:**

> 1: malcolm is now Emma Louise Reed and she is closer to Hoshi's age 
> 
> 2: Emma has a good relationship with her father 
> 
> This is set in early season one no specific time frame

Disclaimer: characters don't belong to  
me

Despite his initial distrust there was nothing aboard enterprise that had caused Stuart Reed alarm, anything he could stake his name on anyway. 

He didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

No, his dread is a formless one, one that keeps him awake at night. 

His little girl alone in space. 

Exploration is all well and good, Stuart understands the desire to explore, he had it inside him when he was young and it's his fault that Emma had inherited this nameless desire to explore. 

But she's his little girl. 

Emma wasn't like Madeline who made friends easily, since she was a child Emma had locked herself away studying and building prototypes, breaking things apart and putting them back together. 

He knew she felt the weight of family legacy, she had been enchanted by the stories of old of the Reed men who had conquered the sea and he had watched as Emma had absorbed their stories and had braced himself for the time when she would join the Royal Navy. 

He told himself that he could deal with that. Somehow he could face his daughter serving in the navy, he didn't like it but he would have been honoured to have her there. 

But then she had said she wanted to go to space and Stuart's world had collapsed. 

Space travel and exploration was dangerous, almost completely unknown and he knew there were species out there that were dangerous. And his girl would be out there with no one that Stuart could trust. 

This Archer fellow looked like a good enough commander although his style was much too lax in Stuart's view (and Emma's, although she was reluctant to say anything against her new captain, no matter what else he had gained Emma's respect, a very difficult thing indeed.

The thought that burned was that if something happened he would be worlds away unable to do anything. If Emma had joined the navy he would know that she was safe that there would be people looking out for her. In space Emma could be gravely injured or worse and who knew when or what he would told?

Emma had always been a quiet child how would she cope on a small vessel surrounded by people who didn't understand her quirks, who didn't understand that her standoffishness was shyness and not contempt?.

What if it was like boarding school for her again? 

He turned a corner, wincing at the broad American accent his ears were assaulted with. 

His daughter stood next to a male crew member, uniform impeccable even after a ten hour shift, her bearing only slightly slumped with tiredness. 

e

The American was close, closer than Emma usually allowed for people who weren't her family. Stuart's father radar switched on and he briefly contemplated how much trouble he would be in if he shot this young man. 

But Emma was perfectly capable of shooting him and to his chagrin was a better shot than her old man and she seemed a least semi comfortable in the American's presence. 

Stuart frowned, he was handsome, he supposed but he'd never really known what type Emma had. Madeline had bought boyfriends home but Emma never had, he couldn't imagine this brash american with his quiet serious daughter but he hadn't expected Emma to join star fleet either. 

He decided to make his presence known. 

"Emma,"

Emma turned, her face colouring slightly, and if he didn't know better he would have said she was blushing.

"Father, this is Charles Tucker the third"

To his credit the boy straightened up properly and he shook Stuart's hands respectfully 

"It's nice to meet you, Emma calls me Trip"

Stuart glanced at his daughter, he didn't know when she had ever referred to someone she worked with by a nickname. 

"Emma's talked about you a lot"

Stuart raised an eyebrow, "really?"

Trip shrugged, caught, "nah not really but I keep trying to prise things out of her. It'll work someday I've got five years at least."

"Good luck," Stuart said, "I am still trying after twenty years"

Emma looked scandalised, "Father!"

Stuart sighed, Madeline had never addresses him so formally it was yet another thing that Emma had picked up from him that he wished he hadn't. In his old age he would change many things differently he would have tried harder to break Emma out of her shell he would not have allowed her to follow so closely in his footsteps. 

There was something warm in Trip's gaze, one that spoke of a prelude of something more than friendship but it was early days yet. Perhaps he had been to harsh on the enterprise. He would never be okay with letting his little girl go gallivanting among the stars but the crew and the ship were admirable and perhaps it would be easier for Emma to be out of the Reed shadow on earth. 

And as he watched Emma speak with the American he realised that the changes in his daughter were already starting. 

He was sure he would be seeing and hearing alot more about this Triip in the future. 

But, he warned, the blonde man silently, 

'Remember I loved her first"


End file.
